Extravagance
by Melody de Calle
Summary: The Manhattan socialites you love are back. Diana has left to go with the Army. Penelope learns that life without Henry is a whole lot more fun than with him... Lina is up to her latest scandal. Elizabeth... well, some things haven't changed.
1. Prologue

​_**Author's Note:**_

_This story takes place after the story __Envy__ in the __Luxe Series.__ It is technically my version of __Splendor.__ Enjoy._

_~Melody_

_

* * *

__**Prologue**_

"Left!" yelled the commander of the unit. "I said left Private Hollander!"

"Sorry, Sir!" yelled Private "Edward Hollander"- the male alter ego of Manhattan socialite Diana Holland. She had cut her hair and ran off disguised as a man to fight in the war. She wanted to be with Henry Schoonmaker, her lover, her friend, and her sister's ex-fiancé. And married to Penelope Hayes.

She was being shipped off that night. She was being shipped off to the Philippines. She was tough enough not to quit. She was tough enough to stick it out. That's what counted. That's all that mattered to the United States Army.

She could have run home to her mother, but God only knows what would happen to her then. Most likely, she wouldn't be able to leave the house until her hair grew to an acceptable length. Knowing her mother, that would be years.

There were things she missed, like being with her sister, Elizabeth. She wondered how her sister was doing in her pregnancy. How many months had she been away? One? Two? She had lost count of the days.

In her spare moments, she wrote to Elizabeth, but she did not know if her sister recieved the letters or not.

_Dear Liz,_

_I miss you very much and I hope you and mother can forgive me one day for running away like that. I do not know if you will, but I hope with all my heart you do. I cannot tell you much about location, but I have joined the Army. I am going to find Henry. I miss him too much. If you respond to my letters, you have to address them to "Private Edward Hollander" instead of Diana Holland._

_Just one last question. Are you and the baby all right?_

_I miss you all._

_Sincerely,_

_Private Edward Hollander_

That was the last letter Diana Holland wrote to Elizabeth Holland-Cairns before she departed for the Philippines and embraced her identity as Private Edward Hollander.

Mrs. Henry Schoonmaker, neé Penelope Hayes, was learning that life without Henry was much better than life with him. She could do what she wanted, when she wanted. She could hold a grand ball with the help of her mother-in-law, who was only seven years older than she. It was fun to be around Isabelle, no one could deny that.

Carolina Broud was at the top of her social climbing game. Ever since her benefactor, Mr. Carey Lewis Longhorn, passed into the next life, she found herself attending every social event there was to offer in Manhattan. She was truely having a ball.

She was the apple of Leland Bouchard's eye when he was in New York, or anywhere near her. That made her very happy and almost forget everyone else.

Elizabeth Cairns was in her sitting room, just waiting. There was not much else she could do. It was not her favorite thing in the world to do, sitting around and having people call on her, but in her delicate condition, no one wished to bother with having her call on them.

She was waiting on hearing from Diana. "A letter for you, Mrs. Cairns," said one of the butlers.

"Who is it from?"

"Someone named Private Edward Hollander."

"Give it to me." She did know that her sister had joined the Military, so it was only natural to take a man's name. The servant gave it to her, and she carefully opened it. _Dear Liz,_ it started. It was definitely Diana. No one else called her Liz besides Penelope.

By the time she finished reading the letter, tears were at her eyes. She had missed Di. She was just as stubborn, it seemed. She finally got her wish. She was now concidered a boy by the army. No more dresses. Elizabeth smiled at the thought.

"Good luck finding him, Di," she murmured. "Good luck."


	2. One

_​ONE_

What has become of Diana

Holland? Where is she?

Reward for inforrmation.

~Sunday, May 6, 1900

Headline of the New York Times

* * *

Diana Holland was on a boat for the Philippines. It was a good thing that not one of her fellow soldiers thought that she was a woman. They all thought that she was Private Edward Hollander, a New Yorker. That, or they all thought that Edward was very religious or just a bit shy.

All the men kept asking about the social elite, including herself, her sister, Penelope, and Lina. But not one was the man she was looking for.

Once in the Philippines, she hoped to run into Teddy Cutting, whom she knew was there. He was the only man she could tell who she really was. Teddy was the only one she knew that might not be surprised that she pulled a stunt like this. In fact, he would laugh at it, saying he was wondering when she would dress like a man.

Besides being able to confide in Teddy, Diana hoped that he knew where Henry was. Henry Schoonmaker was the man Diana joined the Army for. The whole reason that she even wanted to be in the Army. She knew that she needed to find him, slap him, and then kiss him and tell him how much she missed him.

* * *

The first few days on the ship were an ordeal for Diana. Naturally, she was smaller than the men. She was picked on, just as she had been during training until the others got used to her. Just as she would be in her unit.

It wasn't as if she didn't know that she would be harrassed in the Army. But she didn't care. She could fight and keep up with the larger men. She had wit.

"Hollander!" barked one of the officers.

"Yes, sir!"

"When you get off, look for a fellow named Cutting. Lt. Edward Cutting. He'll take you to your unit."

"Thank you sir."

"Good luck, Ed."

Diana's heart skipped a beat when she heard who was taking her to the unit. _Goal number 1, done. Find Henry next._

* * *

In what felt like seconds later, Diana was getting off the boat. _Find Teddy._

"One-seventy-first, this way!" called a familiar voice. Teddy's voice. Diana would know his voice anywhere. She had been to many a party with him, not exactly as his date, he loved Elizabeth, but she did talk to him. She wanted to run up to him and scold him for leaving Elizabeth. That would have made him remember her. That would have earned a gasp. She didn't for she regained her composure in time. She would not break rank to give Teddy a scolding. That could be done later.

Teddy, always the one to follow the rules, took the roll on the ship. _The silly man. _When he got to her name, he did a double take as she replied, then he winked at her, as if he knew she was Hollander.

After he was done with role, he called out to the troops. "Forward march!" It took a few moments to get off the ship as there were so many of them. That would make it more of a challenge to talk to Teddy. It wasn't impossible, though. Nothing was impossible from Diana's standpoint. Why would it be impossible?

Teddy was falling back quickly. "Hollander! Come here."

"Yes sir!" Diana broke rank, as she was told to do.

"How is your sister? I hope she's well."

"I wouldn't know, I haven't seen her in about a month. Maybe two. She was a little mad at you when I left."

"Whatever for?"

"Mother decided she had to marry again, and since you offered numerous times, she figured that you were the best choice. By the time this happened, you were already gone."

"There were others?"

"Snowden Trapp Cairns, my father's former buisness associate. She married him. She had to."

"Oh," he said in a depressed manner.

"So is Henry with your unit?"

"Yes, actually. I didn't think he would be. He's a corpral."

"Do you think I'll be able to talk to him?"

Teddy shrugged. "Most likely. The poor man's been pining for Diana Holland." He winked and smiled at that last bit.

"He thinks I hate him, doesn't he?"

Teddy ran his hand through his hair. "That sounds about right. Now go join the ranks, Private."

"Yes sir!" Diana ran back to join the ranks. One of the men she stood next to turned and looked at her.

"What was that about Ed?"

It took a moment to realize who he was talking to. "Oh, just my sister's old suitor."

"Oh."


	3. Two

_**​TWO**_

Oh, what is Miss Carolina Broad up

to now? Is she stealing yet another

man's heart from him? Or worse, his wife?

~From the "Gamesome Gallant" column in the

_New York Imperial,_ Monday, May 7, 1900

Carolina Broad was the apple of Leland Bouchard's eye for the time being. The newest heiress was one of the most watched socialites of the year now. She was loving every minute of it.

She was once Elizabeth Holland's personal maid- but no one besides the Holland daughters, her sister Claire, Penelope Schoonmacker, and her confidante Tristan Wrigley knew. She didn't plan to let anyone else know. Ever.

Lina had been living life to the fullest since she met Carey Lewis Longhorn, who was her benefactor until he so recently passed away. All of society was devastated, especially Lina at first. She had lost everything until his will was read. Almost everything was given to her. She celebrated with Tristan and later Leland took her out.

It was too bad that Leland left soon after. Too bad indeed. For him.

To the world, she would be forever known as Carolina Broad, heiress. That was exactly the way she wanted it. She didn't care about any other thing, except her social status. That and how many men were after her. She knew that she was becoming shallow, but that was exactly what she wanted to become.

She knew that it wasn't the best idea to go over to Elizabeth's, not that she wanted to, or Penelope's. She couldn't care less about those two women anymore. All she cared to think of was Leland Bouchard. _Leland..._ she thought. She couldn't keep that man out of her head, no matter how many others she saw. No many how many dresses she bought or how many diamonds she had, she could not find another man she loved like Leland.

_Oh well,_ she thought, putting on her signature smirk as she walked into Lord and Taylor's. _We'll see what Tristan has for me today..._

She knew exactly where she was going. She only went to the shop every other day. "Well, Mister Wrigley," she said in a manner that made men's hearts melt. "What do you have for me to look at today?"

"Not very much, I'm afraid. We didn't get in any new fabric since yesterday."

"What about that lovely purple satin I saw?"

"Oh, that? That would make a lovely dress for you, now wouldn't it? Paired with some eyelet lace accents, it would make a lovely evening gown."

"How soon can I have a fitting?"

"For you," he thought. "Five to seven days for the first fitting."

"I _suppose _that will do..."

"You will steal many more men's hearts in that gown."

"I know. It is a reasonable amount of time..."

"But the party's tomorrow."

"No, not a party tomorrow. A party in seven days."

That seemed to take him back. "Well, I might be able to work something out..."

"Thank you Tristan. If you wish, you may meet me for lunch."

**

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~A/N: Not a very long update, but I suppose it will do. If you haven't noticed, I'm not writing for the reviews. Whether you review or not, I don't care, as long as you like it. I do like reviews, though, so it would be nice if I got more. But as I said before, I don't write for them.~

***SPOILER ALERT***: In a response to a review (As I thought this needed to be said to everyone), I will not kill off Henry, Diana, Lina, Leland, Penelope, Teddy, or Elizabeth. But someone will die. I'm not telling when or who, I'm just saying someone will die. ***

Thank you to all that reviewed,  
~Mel~


	4. Three

​_THREE_

We do wonder if our boys

in the Philippines are doing

well. We do miss Mister Henry

Schoonmaker and Edward Cutting

back here in Manhattan.

~The society page of the Imperial Gazette

_Dear Di,_

_I know it doesn't seem like I care about you, but you're all I can think about here in the Philippines, to be brutally honest. I can have Teddy vouch for me on that._

Henry once again crumpled up his letter and tossed it. He was in his tent in the compound, enjoying what little free time he had.

"I miss her..." he whimpered. He hadn't gotten one letter from her. He hoped that she was not with that awful Grayson Hayes still- even though he was Henry's soon to be ex-brother-in-law. He had known that Penelope was not pregnant- she just wanted him to stay with her, the selfish bitch. He only married her to protect Diana, and look where that got him. It made him hated to the girl that he said was his true bride- and she was. She was the only girl he ever truly loved. The only one that he would want to be the mother of his children. The only one that he had ever known that made him chase her and then fell in love.

The cornets blew. He heard feet pounding. Teddy was back, along with the replacement troops. He tore himself from the letter and went outside of his tent. Their commanding officer was already there, giving his speech. All the troops stood at attention-but there was one soldier that stood straighter than the rest. Like he was wearing a corset. Like he was a society girl. "His" face looked feminine- not a strand of facial hair anywhere and a soft jaw line.

It couldn't be.

It just couldn't be.

He was seeing things. He had to be.

That soldier looked like Diana Holland.

He would know that smirk anywhere.

"Edward Hollander!" yelled the C.O.

"Yessir?" said "Hollander" in a faux-sounding voice.

"I hear that you are a very good scout-very quick indeed."

"I suppose so, sir. My size gives me that advantage."

"Well, keep it up."

"Yessir."

"All of you, dismissed. Be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning. All of you!"

"Sir, yes sir!" The soldiers all walked in separate directions. Hollander walked to Teddy, and they both walked straight to Henry.

"Henry, someone wants to talk to you. In private," Teddy said, gesturing to the boy, who gave him the all-knowing smirk. The _Diana-smirk._ "You know each other."

That settled it. "He" was Diana. No one else could smirk like that.

"Come with me."

The trio went to find a quiet place to talk- and for Diana and Henry, possibly more.

They went just up the hill, away from the madness. Then Diana finally did something- something that showed Henry that it really was Diana. She slapped him. "Henry, you idiot! You had me worried sick and panicking and I- I just-" She bent into kiss him, but not before checking to see if anyone could see them. It was a passionate kiss- a one unlike the ones they had had before. One that if they were back in Manhattan, would have led to much, much more. One that he wanted to lead to more, but couldn't.

He broke away. "Diana... what are you doing here?"

"Coming to be with you. I can't live without you and I was stupid to use Grayson to get back at you."

"Does anyone know you're here?"

"Liz."

"I should have known."

Teddy coughed to let them know that he was still there.

Diana laughed. "Sorry Teddy."

"You aren't and you know it." At that they all laughed.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you to all those who have reviewed. Oh, and to those who asked, I cannot bring Lina's parents into the story, but I can bring Claire, her sister. Her parents are dead. The next few chapters will be revolving around Henry and Diana's relationship, so you know.**


	5. AN: IMPORTANT!

Hey guys.

I'm really sorry I haven't been updating all that much. I'm working at them now that I'm getting into the swing of my new schedule. So check back soon, and I'll have an update! Next month, I may not update much at all, NaNo is getting into the swing, too.

Love you all for reading!

~Mel.


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